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A bridge too far? Kartarpur corridor beckons, but Vajpayee’s attempt at Lahore bus service was similarly pregnant with possibility

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A bridge too far? Kartarpur corridor beckons, but Vajpayee’s attempt at Lahore bus service was similarly pregnant with possibility

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imparted an extraordinarily hopeful, if not transformative, dimension to the India-Pakistan decision to develop the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. In recalling the fall of the Berlin wall and invoking the blessings of Guru Nanak to make the corridor a ‘bridge between the two peoples’, Modi has made it far more than a means to enable the Indian Sikh community to regularly visit one of its most important places of worship.

The presence of two Sikh Union ministers – Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri – in Pakistan today while underlining the emotive appeal of the corridor for Sikhs, is indicative of Modi’s expectation of its positive impact on bilateral ties.

Twenty years ago, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif had decided on a peace move – the Delhi-Lahore bus service. That too was greeted with enthusiastic hope, as a sign that the troubled bilateral relationship would decisively turn a corner.

The mood was pregnant with possibility when Vajpayee travelled on the first bus to Lahore in February 1999. He even went to the Minar-e-Pakistan to set at rest Pakistani fears that India and BJP had not accepted its reality. Those possibilities were aborted on the icy peaks of Kargil, which were touched with red by the sacrifice of our martyrs.

Illustration: Ajit Ninan

So, if Modi wishes to lead the first group of pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor, he would do well to ponder over Vajpayee’s Lahore visit and its aftermath. Obviously, there are differences between the present situation and that which obtained two decades ago, but there are also similarities.

Sharif recognised the enormous price of perpetual confrontation with India. He wanted relations to open up while maintaining Pakistan’s traditional positions on Kashmir. India-Pakistan trade was an obvious priority for him. Prime Minister Imran Khan’s initial positions on India-Pakistan ties were similar to those of Sharif for he has stressed much the same. Pakistan’s deep economic troubles currently also oblige Khan to move towards normalising ties with India.

The big difference is in the Pakistan army’s approach. Musharraf, then Pakistan’s army chief, and his Kargil clique of generals – as noted Pakistani journalist Nasim Zehra calls them in her revealing book, From Kargil to the Coup – were completely out of sync with Sharif’s India diplomacy. Planning the capture of the Kargil heights began in October 1998 immediately after Musharraf took over as army chief and within weeks of the two prime ministers’ decision to start the bus service. Clearly, Musharraf was determined to undo the Vajpayee-Sharif initiative and the fate of the bus service was of no consequence to him.

General Qamar Bajwa, the present army chief, has signalled that he is on board with the Kartarpur corridor decision. He also favours the resumption of comprehensive bilateral engagement. Thus, he and the generals will not undermine the initiative as Musharraf had sabotaged the 1998-99 initiative. The question though is: will Bajwa be able to curb the Pakistani establishment’s temptation to use the Kartarpur Sahib corridor to provoke India through Khalistani propaganda which is always seen during the visits of Sikh Jathas. Ironically, the very day India announced the Kartarpur Sahib decision it protested against the encouragement to Khalistani propaganda directed towards Indian Sikh pilgrims who were in Pakistan.

The potential of individual good steps to improve relations remains very limited unless the Pakistan army abandons the use of terror which is by now an intrinsic part of its security doctrine. It is politically impossible for any Indian government to sustain a full dialogue needed to transform ties amidst continuing terrorism. Pakistan still does not recognise this fact.

Thus, while desperately wanting the dialogue it has shown no willingness to curb its India oriented terrorist groups. Besides, the master minds of the Mumbai terrorist attack are no closer to being brought to justice. At a more fundamental level Pakistan still has to rethink its obsessive anti-Indianism, which Hussain Haqqani reminds us is one of the two pillars of its foundational ideology (Islam being the other).

There is no evidence that Pakistan is considering changing its basic course to benefit from the enormous opportunities that a transformation of its relations with India will bring. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor can only fully realise its potential if Pakistan opens commercial and economic ties with India. Some Pakistanis realise this fact but does the army? Its thinking is still stuck in the rut of maintaining Pakistan’s ‘honour and dignity’ while new threats such as crippling water shortages loom on the horizon.

It would also be prudent to see in the Pakistani move a major gesture to the Indian Sikh community. This is in keeping with its traditional attempts to wean the community away from India. The idea is preposterous for India’s Sikhs are part of the country’s warp and woof and no extent of wooing will ever succeed in diluting their patriotism or commitment to the nation. However, that does not mean that Pakistan will give up its attempts at aiding Khalistani terrorists.

As the 2019 elections are approaching it is inevitable that the Kartarpur corridor has become enmeshed in India’s domestic politics. The Sikh vote is important and not only in the Punjab; hence the unsavoury posturing. No doubt Imran Khan and the generals will be chuckling as Indian political parties squabble over Kartarpur.